Nadeshiko Japan, the Japanese men’s national soccer team… The chef who has been supporting the food of Japan’s national athletes is now in the textbooks

Sometimes it takes two days just to pack the food.

Nadeshiko Japan scored a dramatic comeback goal against Brazil in their second group game of the women’s soccer tournament at the Paris Olympics. The nutritional support for the girls is provided by Yoshiteru Nishi, who accompanies the team to the games as their personal chef.

He was the exclusive chef for the Japanese men’s national soccer team from the 2004 World Cup qualifying round in Germany to the 2010 World Cup in Qatar. He has supported the food of the players. He will be introduced as “a person who supports success” in English textbooks for junior high school students starting next spring,

I just did the usual things as a chef,” he said. I have been making meals that everyone is happy with. If the Japanese national team can achieve good results as a result of my efforts, I will be happy.

There are plenty of restaurants that customers have been coming to for 20 years. Nishi says with a bit of embarrassment that he has just been doing the same thing.

However, the team had to prepare meals for more than 50 people, including staff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they had to cook in a country where the ingredients and culture were different from those in Japan. There must have been a lot of hardship.

When I went to Iran, it was right around the time of Ramadan, when Muslims fast. All the markets were closed, so we could not procure ingredients locally. Even if I brought everything from Japan, I would have had to pay excess baggage fees. It was very difficult to prepare in advance what to bring as a priority.

Once he had gathered information, he would decide on a general menu and decide what to bring from Japan and what ingredients to procure locally.

The World Cup expedition can last up to a month. It takes two days just to pack the food for that long.

It sounds exhausting just to hear about it. It is totally different from running a restaurant in Japan.

If they are happy with my simmered dishes, I thought I would make futomakizushi as well. …… I am encouraged by the fact that they say it is delicious!

Before joining the Japan national team, Nishi was the executive chef at a restaurant in J Village, a new sports facility in Fukushima Prefecture. This is how he became the exclusive chef for the national team, and it is the athletes who use J Village. At J Village, he worked with a nutritionist to create menus, and learned why these ingredients were necessary and what was important to them. Based on that experience, Nishi plans menus for overseas expeditions.

Basically, I make sure to include meat and fish dishes,” he says. Also, it is important for soccer players to eat carbohydrates for energy, especially rice, so I prepare furikake, pickled plums, natto (fermented soybeans), etc. to make the rice more palatable.

The only thing they had decided on was silver cod three days before the game, hamburgers two days before, eel the day before, and curry and rice after the game.

Because they wanted the participants to relax and enjoy their meals, they also started live cooking, grilling meat and making pasta right in front of them.

We have the restaurant staff from the hotels where we stay help us with the cooking, but they have to prepare meals for the hotel guests. They have to prepare meals for the hotel guests, so they finish cooking two to three hours before the meal and keep the hot food in the warming cabinet and the cold food in the refrigerator.

The best food is freshly prepared, so it is not at its best. This is why many players did not eat well. That is why we started live cooking.

To make the food more enjoyable, Nishi sometimes makes ramen noodles or okonomiyaki, but his most important task is to crush the food. However, it was not the menu that Nishi was most concerned about.

It was hygiene control. During the expedition, some of the players had stomach problems, and we thought it was because of the water. I thought it was because there was water left over after washing vegetables and fruits.

So, we refrained from serving raw vegetables and fruits for the first two or three days after arrival and asked them to use mineral water to brush their teeth. We had to remove any risk factors so that the athletes would be in perfect condition to compete.

The staff members who arrived at the site before the athletes were allowed to eat at the hotel and check to see if they had diarrhea.

If Mr. Nishi did not accompany the staff, the players would have to provide for their own needs. Nadeshiko Japan used to prepare their own rice and make rice balls before games.

The most encouraging thing for me is that people are happy to eat rice balls. For example, when I served grilled mackerel and simmered vegetables for breakfast, if they were pleased, I would say to myself, “They are so happy to have such simmered vegetables in the morning. Then, I think I’ll make futomaki for lunch. It’s the same at home, isn’t it?

After retiring as the exclusive chef for the Japanese national soccer team, he became the chef for the rugby team and Nadeshiko Japan.

In 2010, after the World Cup in Qatar, Nishi retired from his position as the national team’s exclusive chef. I want young people to experience it,” he says.

Since 2011, he has worked with the Japanese national rugby team and Nadeshiko Japan as their exclusive chef.

When he prepared meals for the Japanese national rugby team, he once again thought, “Food is great.

In the case of rugby, you can eat out for lunch and dinner. At first, about half of the players ate out, but eventually most of them started eating at the hotel.

When everyone sits around the table together, we can communicate. I spent more time at the dining hall, and later the staff told me, ‘It was thanks to Mr. Nishi. It’s a good memory.

Currently, he is in charge of meals for the rugby team and Nadeshiko Japan, as well as for clubs traveling to the Asian Champion League soccer tournament. In between his busy schedule, he also works in the fields. There is a field in front of his house in Fukushima.

I’m also in charge of meals for the junior and senior high school students of the JFA Academy Fukushima, but the prices of meat and vegetables are skyrocketing right now. I have a limited budget, so I thought why not grow my own food?

I’ve never done any farming before, and I keep making mistakes (laughs). The other day, I sowed a bag of lettuce seeds, and they produced too much, so I wondered what to do. I’m learning through trial and error.

He is still very busy.

If they say, ‘We’d love to have you,’ there’s no reason to say no,” he said. I feel that I can still do it.